Cauvery: Constitute CMB immediately, Jayalalithaa urges PM

Chennai, Mar 12: The Centre must set up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) without delay in order to protect the interests of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said on Tuesday.

She sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stressing that the constitution of both the CMB and the CWRC is imperative to stop deliberate depletion of the Cauvery water stored by dams in Karnataka.

Jayalalithaa pointed out that every year there is rainfall in the Cauvery Basin's catchment areas in the upper riparian state during the third week of April. Karnataka's dams would fill up due to these summer showers but the state does not bother to conserve the water, she noted.

"The government of Karnataka is in the habit of depleting the storages from its four reservoirs namely Krishnarajasagar, Kabini, Hemavathy and Harangi during the summer months besides utilising the inflows into the reservoirs during the period," wrote Jayalalithaa.

"Karnataka, as in the past, would continue to utilise the flows for summer irrigation without conserving it for the releases as prescribed in the final order of the tribunal," she said.

Jayalalithaa was referring to the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final award as per which Tamil Nadu is to get 419 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of Cauvery water while Karnataka has been allotted 270 tmc ft.

"The government of Karnataka should adhere to the irrigation season from June 1 to Jan 31 as stipulated in the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and should not be allowed to deplete the storages from its reservoirs for summer irrigation," Jayalalithaa said.

She called for a monitoring mechanism that can protect Tamil Nadu's rights in the irrigation year 2013-14.

Jayalalithaa added that the prime minister should "order the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure that the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee are put in place to implement the final order of the tribunal in letter and spirit."